ORIGINAL: Community Advocacy and Capacity Building of Community Health Workers on Rheumatic Heart Disease in Osun State, Nigeria

West Afr J Med . 2022 Jul 31;(7):756-760.

Abstract

Abstract  in English, French

Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular diseases in the world. The study aimed to assess awareness and capacity building on the diagnosis and prevention of RHD among Community Health Workers (CHWs) Nigeria. It was an interventional study, where 300 CHWs from public Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities were selected pre-assessed on the diagnosis and prevention of RHD before their training on RHD. Also, a post-test evaluation was done to reassess the CHWs awareness on RHD. Data were analyzed and RHD knowledge was scored and graded. Results showed, at pre-test evaluation, that 49% of the CHWs had good knowledge, 49.7% had fair knowledge while 4.1% had poor knowledge on the diagnosis and prevention of RHD, while post-test evaluation revealed that 100% of the CHWs had good knowledge. Awareness of the CHWs about the diagnosis and prevention of RHD was fair in the pre-test and improved after the training with all the CHWs having good knowledge. This showed the training was impactful. Intermittent assessment of the awareness and simultaneous training of the CHWs on RHD may be scaled up into a significant and effective measure in the armamentarium of community prevention of the disease.

Keywords: Community Health Workers; Health service; Prevention; Rheumatic heart disease.